Gillian Spraggs (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} wolfinthewood) wrote,@ 2009-08-24 00:30:00 |
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Google Book Settlement: Opting Out
I found that the toughest part of opting out of the Google Book Settlement was making a list of my publications, so that they could be removed from Google's Book Search corpus. It is not that my publication record is that impressive: it's just that I have bits and pieces of essays, poems, and translations scattered through a number of multi-author volumes.
It was when I discovered that Google have digitised Award-winning Poems from the First Elizabethan Poetry Award Competition, a collection of children's prize-winning poems published in 1967 and aimed at the pockets of proud parents and other relatives, that I realised I had better be pretty thorough. I cannot imagine how a copy fetched up in the library of the University of California. Perhaps someone was researching the poet James Reeves, who wrote an introduction.
In the end, I included even my Ph.D thesis in the list. The settlement agreement defines a 'book' as 'a written or printed work that [within various provisos] was published or distributed to the public or made available for public access as a set of written or printed sheets of paper bound together in hard copy form' (my emphasis). I don't think Cambridge University Library would hand my thesis over to Google's scanners, but what do I know for sure any more? One of the effects of the Google Library Project is that it has put a big dent in my trust in the integrity, law-abiding nature, and general common sense of academic librarians.
The toughest part of listing my publications was finding out the ISBNs of editions of which I did not have an author's copy. Between them the Google Book Search, Amazon, and Bookfinder supplied the missing information.
I also dug out all my contracts (it involved a trip to the attic to find some of them), and established that, yes, I own, outright, with no qualifications, the digital/online/electronic rights of everything I have ever published in print. Also, in the case of most of my publications I never licensed the US rights. Among the offensive features of the settlement agreement are the provisions that assign publishers income from rights that have never been licensed to them.
It is not, in fact, necessary to list all one's publications in order to opt out of the settlement. If time is short (as it is) and the whole business is horribly complicated, you can, I believe, opt out now and make arrangements for your publications later, with the proviso that if you want them removed or excluded from the corpus, you must contact Google on the matter by 5 April 2011. I think that's so; but I guess, if that was my situation, I'd check for sure with the Settlement Administrator.
[Post Scriptum: Checked with the settlement administrator's office by phone on 27 August. If you are opting out and want your books removed from the Book Search (or transferred to the Partner Program) it is convenient to arrange this and supply a list at the point when you opt out, but it is not necessary: you can sort that part out later.]
It is possible to phone the Settlement Administrator's office free of charge from most countries. The Settlement Administrator is, of course, independent (though hired by Google, I believe). I rang them last Wednesday and found the person I talked to helpful and professional.
The phone numbers are here: http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/hel
You have to wait through a nine-number automatic menu before you reach a real person.
Things I was told:
i) If you opt out by letter, rather than online, they will send written confirmation of receipt, but only if you expressly ask for this.
ii) If you want to specify that your books should not be digitized, and that any that have been digitized should be removed, you must state that you want this in your letter: it won't be done automatically.
(The settlement website makes it clear that there is an alternative option: transferring your books to the Partner Program.)
iii) I asked whether it would be all right to give my contact address as c/o my agent's office, rather than my own home address. She said that that would be all right 'as long as your agent doesn't mind'. The Settlement Administrator is using a box number. I didn't see why I should send my private address to a box number; or have it passed on to Google, either.
iv) Though some authors have sent their opt-out letters to the court, they only need to go to the Settlement Administrator.
v) There is no reason why you shouldn't opt out both by letter and online, if you want, if you are the kind of person who always likes to play things safe.
The online opt out form is here:
http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/r/e
There is more info on opting out on the settlement website: see http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/hel
One point I found on the website: in order to opt out you have to specify which sub-class you are opting out from: author or publisher.
Opting out, I believe - not sure where I found this - has to be 'by close of business' on Friday 4th September. I assume that is New York time, but that may be a point worth checking. Maybe it is Minneapolis time? The Settlement Administrator is in Minneapolis.
If you opt out by letter, it is supposed to be First-Class Mail, postmarked on or before September 4, 2009. So if you opt out by post you have a little more lee-way there. Better hope the postmark isn't smudged, though.
I opted out by letter, and since I was (of course) posting from the UK, I sent it by fast certified air mail (Airsure).
Why did I opt out by letter? Partly, I have an old-fashioned faith in the virtues of hard copy. Partly, the message options on the online form didn't seem to me to completely fit the case. I preferred to send my own message to Google.
One clause I adapted from some other opt-out letters I found on the web: 'These instructions include but are not limited to the following publications: '.
Why 'include but … not limited to'? Partly in case I have forgotten something. But chiefly in case someone, somewhere, has reprinted some of my work without permission. Do I sound paranoid? It has happened more than once. It's always translations: too many people can't seem to get their heads round the idea that there is copyright in original translations.
Why did I choose to opt out?
First, to preserve my rights intact.
Secondly, because the Google Library Project, and the Google Book Settlement, form an attack on the legal principles that sustain the copyright system, and I refuse as a matter of principle to endorse or connive at that attack.
Do I think other authors should opt out?
Not my affair. What I want is for other authors to be fully informed, and to make informed choices.
The Google Book Settlement, if it is accepted by the court, will have the effect of a contract: a contract that will bind authors and their heirs for the duration of their copyrights. Professional writers with any sense read contracts very carefully and weigh them up.
I think that in their own interests authors should examine the settlement agreement at least as closely and critically as they would scrutinize a contract from a publisher.
I found that the toughest part of opting out of the Google Book Settlement was making a list of my publications, so that they could be removed from Google's Book Search corpus. It is not that my publication record is that impressive: it's just that I have bits and pieces of essays, poems, and translations scattered through a number of multi-author volumes.
It was when I discovered that Google have digitised Award-winning Poems from the First Elizabethan Poetry Award Competition, a collection of children's prize-winning poems published in 1967 and aimed at the pockets of proud parents and other relatives, that I realised I had better be pretty thorough. I cannot imagine how a copy fetched up in the library of the University of California. Perhaps someone was researching the poet James Reeves, who wrote an introduction.
In the end, I included even my Ph.D thesis in the list. The settlement agreement defines a 'book' as 'a written or printed work that [within various provisos] was published or distributed to the public or made available for public access as a set of written or printed sheets of paper bound together in hard copy form' (my emphasis). I don't think Cambridge University Library would hand my thesis over to Google's scanners, but what do I know for sure any more? One of the effects of the Google Library Project is that it has put a big dent in my trust in the integrity, law-abiding nature, and general common sense of academic librarians.
The toughest part of listing my publications was finding out the ISBNs of editions of which I did not have an author's copy. Between them the Google Book Search, Amazon, and Bookfinder supplied the missing information.
I also dug out all my contracts (it involved a trip to the attic to find some of them), and established that, yes, I own, outright, with no qualifications, the digital/online/electronic rights of everything I have ever published in print. Also, in the case of most of my publications I never licensed the US rights. Among the offensive features of the settlement agreement are the provisions that assign publishers income from rights that have never been licensed to them.
It is not, in fact, necessary to list all one's publications in order to opt out of the settlement. If time is short (as it is) and the whole business is horribly complicated, you can, I believe, opt out now and make arrangements for your publications later, with the proviso that if you want them removed or excluded from the corpus, you must contact Google on the matter by 5 April 2011. I think that's so; but I guess, if that was my situation, I'd check for sure with the Settlement Administrator.
[Post Scriptum: Checked with the settlement administrator's office by phone on 27 August. If you are opting out and want your books removed from the Book Search (or transferred to the Partner Program) it is convenient to arrange this and supply a list at the point when you opt out, but it is not necessary: you can sort that part out later.]
It is possible to phone the Settlement Administrator's office free of charge from most countries. The Settlement Administrator is, of course, independent (though hired by Google, I believe). I rang them last Wednesday and found the person I talked to helpful and professional.
The phone numbers are here: http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/hel
You have to wait through a nine-number automatic menu before you reach a real person.
Things I was told:
i) If you opt out by letter, rather than online, they will send written confirmation of receipt, but only if you expressly ask for this.
ii) If you want to specify that your books should not be digitized, and that any that have been digitized should be removed, you must state that you want this in your letter: it won't be done automatically.
(The settlement website makes it clear that there is an alternative option: transferring your books to the Partner Program.)
iii) I asked whether it would be all right to give my contact address as c/o my agent's office, rather than my own home address. She said that that would be all right 'as long as your agent doesn't mind'. The Settlement Administrator is using a box number. I didn't see why I should send my private address to a box number; or have it passed on to Google, either.
iv) Though some authors have sent their opt-out letters to the court, they only need to go to the Settlement Administrator.
v) There is no reason why you shouldn't opt out both by letter and online, if you want, if you are the kind of person who always likes to play things safe.
The online opt out form is here:
http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/r/e
There is more info on opting out on the settlement website: see http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/hel
One point I found on the website: in order to opt out you have to specify which sub-class you are opting out from: author or publisher.
Opting out, I believe - not sure where I found this - has to be 'by close of business' on Friday 4th September. I assume that is New York time, but that may be a point worth checking. Maybe it is Minneapolis time? The Settlement Administrator is in Minneapolis.
If you opt out by letter, it is supposed to be First-Class Mail, postmarked on or before September 4, 2009. So if you opt out by post you have a little more lee-way there. Better hope the postmark isn't smudged, though.
I opted out by letter, and since I was (of course) posting from the UK, I sent it by fast certified air mail (Airsure).
Why did I opt out by letter? Partly, I have an old-fashioned faith in the virtues of hard copy. Partly, the message options on the online form didn't seem to me to completely fit the case. I preferred to send my own message to Google.
One clause I adapted from some other opt-out letters I found on the web: 'These instructions include but are not limited to the following publications: '.
Why 'include but … not limited to'? Partly in case I have forgotten something. But chiefly in case someone, somewhere, has reprinted some of my work without permission. Do I sound paranoid? It has happened more than once. It's always translations: too many people can't seem to get their heads round the idea that there is copyright in original translations.
Why did I choose to opt out?
First, to preserve my rights intact.
Secondly, because the Google Library Project, and the Google Book Settlement, form an attack on the legal principles that sustain the copyright system, and I refuse as a matter of principle to endorse or connive at that attack.
Do I think other authors should opt out?
Not my affair. What I want is for other authors to be fully informed, and to make informed choices.
The Google Book Settlement, if it is accepted by the court, will have the effect of a contract: a contract that will bind authors and their heirs for the duration of their copyrights. Professional writers with any sense read contracts very carefully and weigh them up.
I think that in their own interests authors should examine the settlement agreement at least as closely and critically as they would scrutinize a contract from a publisher.
